FONTANA – Now that the circus known as Daytona Speedweeks is in the rearview mirror, the real racing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series begins this weekend at California Speedway.

No more restrictor plates, just raw horsepower.

“It’s completely a clean slate,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr. of the difference between the Daytona 500 and Sunday’s Auto Club 500. “You can’t compare the two. Daytona is like a season of its own, and the superspeedway program is different than the rest of the tracks.”

The trip west to California signals the start of the regular routine for drivers and crew.

“I’ll be looking forward to it because we’re going back to the normal racing, the racing where the driver has a lot of input,” said Denny Hamlin, who made the Nextel Cup Chase for the Championship in 2006 as a rookie. “The setup means a whole lot. For us, it’s back to the basics when we go back to California.

“Honestly, I like Daytona, but it’s good to start your real racing.”

Certainly Kyle Busch is ready to return to Fontana, the site of his first pole (2005 Auto Club 500) and win (2005 Sony HD 500).

“The biggest thing about going to California is getting out of Daytona and restrictor-plate racing,” said Busch, who triggered the spectacular crash near the finish line on Sunday. “It’s not that that’s a terrible thing but it’s not one of my specialties. You’re more in control in California: there’s more on the hands of the driver, the crew chiefs and the set-up and everything else that goes on there to enable you to have a fast race car.

“Everyone’s ready to go on to California.”

Kasey Kahne, who won the Cup race at Fontana last September, finished seventh in the season opener and is confident about returning to a routine.

“It’s not a two-week ordeal. It’s a three-day deal,” Kahne said the weekend. “You work hard to win on Sunday. We won the last race at California, and we’ll go back there feeling like we can win the next one.

“Our team is very strong, and I’m looking forward to it. I think we’re going to have a good race Sunday, and I think we’ll have another good race at California.”

Bobby Labonte, who has twice finished second at Fontana and won a pole in 2003, knows how quick the three-day show can be.

“We’re back to aerodynamics and things like that,” said Labonte. “We’ll see what we have when we unload Friday and go from there. We want to be better than what we were last season. We want to keep moving forward.”

There’s a different type of urgency for Dale Jarrett. After racing 13 times at California in a Ford, he’s now part of the new Toyota effort and will drive the UPS-sponsored Camry for Michael Waltrip.

Jarrett’s best finish at Fontana was in 1999, a fifth-place effort.

“It’s a great track for racing and we’re obviously anxious to get there and see where we are with our down force program,” said Jarrett. “Going into this year we knew we had a lot of work to get ready and that the down force program was going to be important for this team because it is a new team.”

Lou Brewster is a nationally recognized motorsports journalist who has staffed NASCAR and NHRA events since 1969. Has also staffed high school football, in five different states, since 1967. Has won several national awards in writing and breaking news.